McLemore is getting the message

This became the fourth consecutive game in which freshman guard Ben McLemore—who, frankly, played himself off of the Sporting News All-American first team—attempted at least 10 shots.

Or maybe it’s not accurate to say he played his way off the first team. Maybe he not-played his way off. The problem with McLemore never has been what he does; it’s what he does not do.

He’s a shooting guard, and he doesn’t always shoot. Though he is Kansas’ primary scoring option, though he is probably the most talented player in Division I, he has gone through 12 games this season in which he did not attempt double-figure shots.

The most recent of those was on the road at Iowa State, when his 2-for-6 non-effort nearly cost KU a victory. It took a sort of miracle succession of officiating decisions to get the Jayhawks into overtime that night, where they were able to pull away.

In his first-ever Big 12 Tournament game, McLemore was the player most everybody, especially coach Bill Self, wants him to be. Self told Sporting News prior to the tournament that he’d rather see McLemore have a bad shooting day than simply not shoot.

“Certainly, he’s done a much better job over the last month or so of plugging himself in,” Self said.

McLemore left the game Thursday with just under five minutes left with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Before departing, he showed the kind of dominant offensive player he can be by making a shake-dribble crossover move to blow past his defender and then glided along the baseline beneath the backboard to score on a reverse layup.

It was as pretty a play as anyone has delivered this season. It was no surprise McLemore could do it, but maybe a pleasant one that he would.

Those adidas uniforms don’t look bad in white

After all the fuss about Cincinnati’s garish outfits and Notre Dame’s neon green—not exactly the color of St. Patrick’s Day—Kansas took the courts in their adidas custom impact camo uniforms in the Big 12 quarterfinals.

The verdict: At least until the Elite Eight, KU figures to look quite sharp.

The KU blue version we’ve seen in photographs might be hard on the eyes, but the camouflage pattern on the home white shorts actually dressed up the KU outfit. The jerseys looked almost like classic Kansas, except for a strip of that camo pattern on each player’s ribcage.

As the No. 1 seed, Kansas will wear white as long as it’s alive in the Big 12. As a likely No. 1 or 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, it will wear white until deep into the event. But it’s not committed to wearing these whites. Self told the Lawrence Journal-World beforehand that would be dependent “on how we play in them, or whatever.”

KU will be well rested

When Self sent four starters back into the game with 10 minutes left and a 22-point lead, it was a clear sign he wanted them to get a little work. They really could have sat the whole rest of the game without being tested.

When the bench finally was clear at the end, KU still was growing the lead. It was a 29-point advantage when McLemore left, and it grew to 33 later. The deep reserves handled things well enough that Self eventually felt comfortable sitting down.

The five KU starters averaged 13 minutes of rest per man, with center Jeff Withey getting a welcome 14 minutes and senior point guard Elijah Johnson 14. That should help in Friday night’s semifinal against Iowa State (7 p.m. ET).